Sunday, March 5, 2017

Reflection for Week of February 27 to March 3

Ok, so this week, things are going to be a bit shorter, as I am feeling rather burned out and like my brain is slowly dissolving inside my head. Why isn’t it still vacation?

I think I did pretty well with the work this week. Monday we discoed Vodcast 4.4 on viruses (Domain 4.3), which I feel like I have a pretty good handle on given that I accidentally studied them for the quiz on Friday. There are still a couple of questions I have, but nothing major. For example, I really want to know how viroids causes disease, but, as it turns out, biologists don’t know that for sure yet (or even close to for sure, since you don’t ever really know anything “for sure” in bio).

The rest of the week was spent on the lab (Domain 4.1, and, more importantly, my favorite part of the week!), which I feel like I understand the process of well, having completed the online lab, read the prelab thoroughly, and done the lab. What I’m not so sure about is the whole database analyzation piece, but I’m sure I’ll have a better idea after talking to Mrs. Cole.

On Friday we had a quiz, and, after studying for it, I feel like I have a pretty good handle on the biotech tools, applications, and ethics, which I was feeling overwhelmed about the last time I wrote a reflection. The ethics part is a difficult one, because it is personal, and I am someone who likes to take my time processing information and exploring different beliefs to understand what I myself believe.

I think I can definitely improve when it comes to understanding the analyzation part of the lab, having missed Thursday. I feel overwhelmed right now, and am unsure how I am going to finish it by Wednesday. But I will keep working steadily and see where that gets me.

The lab largely had to do with PCR and electrophoresis, two common tools of biotech, and fits very neatly into the curriculum. We learned about biotech tools leading up to vacation, and, in order to understand how these biotech tool work, one must understand how certain aspects of biology, like DNA replication in the case of PCR, and restriction enzymes and DNA structure in the case of electrophoresis.